Australian officials to visit MH17 crash site

Three Australian officials including Angus Houston, the former Australian defence chief, will soon visit the MH17 crash site for the first time, escorted by unarmed observers.

Sending police there, as announced today by Prime Minister Tony Abbott, will be more difficult.

Protecting the crash site is not the problem, the headache will be to try and ensure the safety of investigators on the ground because of the bitter war going on in the region.

It’s this volatile environment that Australian and international crash experts and recovery teams are now trying to enter.

A place where tempers are on a knife edge; where the separatists have shown so little sympathy for the victims and their families; and where more than 80 bodies are still apparently scattered across meadows and woodlands.

The only encouraging news is that aviation investigators believe there has been no interference with the airline’s flight recorders by the Russian-backed rebels.

The boxes are now in Britain where the first information is being downloaded.